EARTHQUAKE / THE LONG ROAD BACK : Teams With High-Tech Gear Pay Dividends : Mutual aid: Urban search-and-rescue units are called in to assist local fire crew efforts. ‘It worked beautifully,’ a manager says.

When the Loma Prieta earthquake collapsed a 1 1/2-mile span of freeway in Oakland four years ago, the city’s search-and-rescue units were overwhelmed by the disaster and forced to rely on outside assistance.

Virtually the same situation occurred during Monday’s massive temblor, when Los Angeles firefighters had to call outside units to help pull victims from the rubble of a Northridge apartment building and two other sites.

Had the earthquake been more powerful, dozens of similar structural collapses could have occurred and trapped countless victims who might have perished before being rescued, fire officials said Tuesday.

“People ought to realize that it could have been a lot worse,” said Assistant Los Angeles Fire Chief Frank Borden. “We’re lucky that we didn’t have more structures collapse.”

Officials said no lives were lost as a result of delays resulting from calls for assistance to other agencies.

Fire experts said the disaster showed that the city could benefit from additional urban search-and-rescue crews, which employ specialized training and equipment to move massive chunks of rubble and search for victims amid pockets of debris.

But the equipment and training cost money at a time when the Los Angeles Fire Department has suffered years of budget cuts. A councilman who represents one of the hardest-hit areas said he will seek federal funding to pay for more of the specialized teams.

“We obviously need more money for these things, and I would undoubtedly support it,” said Councilman Hal Bernson of the San Fernando Valley. “What is a human life worth?”

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake focused nationwide attention on the need for urban search and rescue. Oakland firefighters faced one of the worst structural collapses in U.S. history when the Nimitz Freeway pancaked, killing 42 people.

After that quake, the state developed a network of eight of the special urban rescue teams, giving them $2.2 million in start-up costs, and $400,000 in annual funding since then, said Mark Ghilarducci, manager of the state urban search-and-rescue program. In 1990, the federal government modeled a national program after California’s, now run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and capable of sending the teams anywhere in the world.

City fire crews were forced to call for help from four urban rescue task forces that swept in from around the Southland with firefighters, engineers, paramedics and specially trained dogs to extricate the living and find the dead.

Using bags filled with compressed air, firefighters moved tons of rubble. Sensitive listening devices that monitor seismic vibrations were wedged between the wreckage to locate victims. And half-inch-wide fiber-optic lenses with lighting systems were dropped down holes to look for open spaces.

The search teams used their James Bond-like equipment to rescue Salvador Pena, who was pulled from the debris of the parking garage at the Northridge Fashion Center after being trapped in his crushed street sweeper for more than seven hours. Pena was in critical condition Tuesday with crushed legs and a partially dislocated spine.

“Absolutely, we saved his life,” said Los Angeles Battalion Chief Richard A. Warford, who coordinated the USAR teams.

The rescue of just one victim absorbed a great deal of time, which gave fire officials and experts an indication of the resources that would be needed for rescues if a much larger quake strikes Los Angeles.

“It took more than seven hours just to rescue one person. What if there were 100 people in there?” asked Gary Tokle, a rescue expert at the Massachusetts-based National Fire Protection Assn.

He said firefighters had their hands full with rescues at the Northridge shopping center and nearby apartment complex where 16 people died.

Borden of the city Fire Department agreed. He said victims could be trapped for up to 72 hours in a major earthquake. “If we can respond within 24 hours, we have a good chance of saving people,” he said. “After that, their chance for survival decreases.”

Ghilarducci said the urban search-and-rescue teams, which are funded by the state Office of Emergency Services, saved at least several lives at the Northridge Meadows apartment complex.

Once at the scene, rescuers used TV monitors strapped to their chests to see what the search cameras were showing inside the rubble and high-tech devices to listen for anyone trying to scratch their way out.

Soon after the quake was felt, the teams were mobilized. One team run by the Los Angeles City Fire Department was on scene right away, followed by teams from Orange County and Riverside. After the Los Angeles Fire Department took care of some emergency calls of its own, the Los Angeles County team responded. Four other teams from California and other states remain on standby at the National Guard base at Los Alamitos.

Each team of 56 firefighters, paramedics, engineers and others work together at first and then split in half so they can work around the clock for 10 days at a time. Even though the teams carry 23,000 pounds of equipment, they can be mobilized and sometimes on the scene within six hours.

The teams’ performance proved their value and showed how the city could benefit from additional units rather than waiting for outside agencies to respond, experts said.

“If there’s a need for it, departments should be prepared,” said Edward Wall, a deputy administrator at the National Fire Academy in Maryland.